Housing Opportunities

Program Objective

The overall objective of the Housing Opportunities Program is to improve housing stock and preserve neighborhoods by working with community-based organizations, creating homeownership opportunities, assisting homeowners to bring their residences up to Baltimore County codes and standards, and to stimulate the development and redevelopment of high quality multifamily housing for County renters.

The county's commitment within its fiscal capacity is to ensure that each of its residents has the resources to enjoy a high quality of life and that each of its communities is livable and attractive. Among these resources is the right of fair and equal access to housing that is decent, safe, sanitary and affordable. Baltimore County is making an effort to maintain its institutional and financial capacity to ensure the availability of housing for all its citizens.

The County will undertake the following activities to maintain and increase access to affordable housing by:

Assisting first-time low-to-moderate income homebuyers to purchase existing homes within the community conservation areas

Increasing the availability of affordable and workforce housing within existing older communities

Creating housing opportunities for populations with special needs, including the elderly, people with disabilities and households of low or fixed income

Building and increasing community-based capacity to acquire and rehabilitate existing housing as part of a community-based redevelopment strategy

Promoting the use of sustainable design and green housing techniques in the construction of and the rehabilitation of affordable housing

Promoting maintenance of the current supply of decent, affordable, assisted housing within the context of stable, well-maintained and well-serviced neighborhoods

Promoting full utilization of all existing subsidies, including Housing Choice Vouchers

Providing opportunities for economic self-sufficiency and asset development needed to empower assisted housing program participants

Promoting fair housing and equal opportunity in housing

These activities represent sound investments in the future of the county, as well as in the future of each of its citizens. These activities complement the county's broader housing strategies that are not necessarily income-based, but focus on the stabilization and revitalization of older neighborhoods. These strategies also build community capacity necessary to address housing issues and to increase the supply of affordable, decent and safe housing.